I would like to move SETI@Home / BOINC projects onto a different, dedicated Windows user account. How would I do this? Is the following the right approach:

1) Set no new tasks on current Windows user account and let workunits in queue finish. Secondary question: could I suspend queued tasks and just finish tasks in progress tasks or do I need to drain the whole queue?

2) Detach from projects in Boinc Manager on current Windows user account

3) Logon to new Windows user account, I see Boinc Manager is started in registry for all users. Attach to same projects using the same SETI@home user information

4) Logoff dediciated Windows user account, Boinc Manager should then just run in the background.

This would give me a little better security as the work unit tasks would then run under the new dediciated Windows account. Could I still open BOINC manager on my main Windows user account and issue commands and control BOINC manager on the dediciated Windows user account?

3) Logon to new Windows user account, I see Boinc Manager is started in registry for all users.

No, not by default. The setting in the registry is there always, but it's the setting of "Run Manager at login?" in BOINC Manager->Options->Other options that sets if BOINC Manager (and thus BOINC) starts at Windows logon. (This setting is stored in another part of the registry)

The setting of "Allow all users on this computer to control BOINC" in the installer sets whether the new account is able to actually use BOINC Manager.

In all, you don't need to do the whole uninstall, reinstall routine because the directories don't change for the other user account. The permissions for the new user account do need to be set up, with an uninstall/reinstall of BOINC and making sure that "Allow all users on this computer to control BOINC" is checked.

If you don't have a GPU in that system, you may want to check out the "Service install" option, which runs BOINC in a limited user-account always, in the background. But due to security measures built into Windows, it cannot reach the GPU drivers, because they run in a separate user-account, thus BOINC cannot detect the GPUs then.Jord

Ancient Astronaut Theorists can tell you that I do not help with tech questions via private message. Please use the forums for that.

Thanks for the info, I see some odd behaviour when switching between Windows user accounts. BOINC Manager reports GPU missing! I will have to do some more testing but it sounds like GPU is only available to the logged on user account. If true using a separate user account would stop the use of the GPU.

I did look at the service install option but the info during the installation hinted this was not a preferred method, I guess due to the GPU limitation you pointed out. Would exclusive applications till work if I reinstalled BOINC as a service?

I see some odd behaviour when switching between Windows user accounts. BOINC Manager reports GPU missing!

When you use fast user switching, the drivers for the GPU were started by the first user, not the new user and then you run into the same problem that BOINC loses the contact with those drivers. That's a Windows thing. The solution is to log out, then log back in as the new user. That way the new user account loads its own drivers.Jord

Ancient Astronaut Theorists can tell you that I do not help with tech questions via private message. Please use the forums for that.